How Does Google Place Pages Influence SEO?

Google Place Pages, a new maps profile page format that replaces the tabbed version of the "info bubble" on maps, has the SEO community up in arms, according to Greg Sterling.

Google lets businesses submit specific categories they want to include. It appears that when searching for a specific restaurant you get Web pages, directions, reviews, images, street view imagery, and more. So what's the problem? There are too many unanswered questions about what this will mean for SEO professionals. Some speculate Google wants to keep users from having to leave the query results.